She was a child of the Maelstrom
Born far away from the center of it all
In the outskirts of the Halo
The chill of the absolute in her heart
Her thoughts soft and slow
Intoxicating her intellect
And numbing all unpleasant thoughts
She had formed from the debris
That was left over from Creation
The quiet calm pervaded all
And in contentment and peace --
And thankful ignorance --
She slept

In her delirium
She dreamed a dream
Through the silence and darkness
In the Halo
Her thoughts reached out
Across unmeasurable distances
But could not touch her neighbors
That were so far away
Her aloneness was all-encompassing
And yet she revelled in it
To be free of worries and charges --
And responsibilities --
And in her slumber
She smiled

But in her dream
Suddenly there was Another
Somewhere --
Somehow --
It would not be seen --
Until it was upon you
It would not be felt --
Until its teeth pierced you
And sapped your strength
It scarred and burned and hurt
For pleasure alone
She saw her brothers and sisters
Destroyed and maimed and left reeling
She awoke from her dream
With a start
But her thoughts still muddled
In the mindless dark
And she thought she heard laughter
As she drifted back to sleep

And then it happened --
In one moment the center collapsed
Things would never be the same
A wave of pain and blindness
Surged forth from the Maelstrom
Killing countless numbers
Of her brothers and sisters
Even from the unbelievable distances
In the vastness of the Halo
She felt them cry out in pain
Just before their strength was sapped
And their lives slipped away
The Anger was born
The heat seeped into her body
And reflected off her frozen heart
But it was so far away
Anger fades to mere Discontentment
Light fades to dim --
Heat fades to cool --
Out here in the Halo
And so -- with a sad thought or two --
She returned to the safety of sleep

And her cousins and relatives
Down in the Maelstrom --
What of their madness?
A certain once-removed cousin
Spinning madly in the Anger's grip
Covered in green scum
Crawling over his tortured skin
Like a nightmare come true
Choking on noxious gases --
Who could envy that?
An insignificant dip in the entropic field
And nothing more
But out here in the Halo --
The luxurious silence
The wide-open spaces
With not a neighbor in sight
The cold
That keeps unhappiness frozen in its place
This is her majesty
And so back to sleep

She dreamed another dream
This time the Other was back
Staring at her sleeping
It was a grim sight --
Frozen black face
A misty and undefinable surface
Surrounded by a cold ring
Of her dead brothers and sisters
Worn like trophies
It smiled a toothless grin
And burned furiously with heat
Left over from its birth
It came close -- so close --
Its mouth grew wider -- and wider --
She snapped her eyes shut
Screamed out -- and woke up
To find Something moving quickly away
Laughing
But to her dismay
She found herself --
Slowly but surely --
Falling into the Maelstrom

That furious Maelstrom --
The Anger spied her
Light shone on her
And heat melted into her
And as she thawed out
Her thoughts became clearer
The pain of existence became stronger
The Halo --
The pervasive calm --
The pleasure of leisure --
To be there again!
But she knew that she could never return
Her skin began to smolder and char
And then boil
She felt her bones shatter and fragment
She suffocated in her own former self
But then
Her hair began to unfurl
Blazing forth beautifully
In the light of the Anger
A tribute to her existence --
And her torture --
And she sighed

And as if in retribution
For the beautiful sight
The Anger pulled her closer
And swung her round
And as she fell deeper
Into the Maelstrom
She begged the Anger stop
She begged to return
To the safety of the Halo
But the Anger only pulled harder
That certain cousin loomed close
And as he did he met her eyes sadly
That green scum had changed
And it had learned to walk
And talk and scratch and kill
And now they craned their furry heads upward
To see a new fuzzy light in the sky
Their artificial glass eyes
Ran virtual fingers through her hair
They sent insects to swarm around her
And some to sting her
And did their other trivial things
And they realized that she spelled their doom